Friday, October 24, 2014

To Live as a Jew

In HadassahHospital, a 21 year old girl is fighting
for her life. Actually, as she lies in a coma, others are fighting for
her life, sitting by her bedside, praying for her, saying psalms in her behalf
– Yemima bat Avraham Avinu.

Correct,
“bat Avraham Avinu”, the father of all Jewish souls. Only a few short months
ago, Yemima, originally from Ecuador,
received her conversion certification.

Terror in Jerusalem

On
Wednesday, an Arab terrorist plowed down a group of Jews at the Ammunition Hill
train station. Infant Chaya Zissel Braun was murdered in the attack, and eight
others are in various stages of injury. Yemima Mascera Barera is in critical
condition, on life support systems. It’s ironic that Yemima, who wanted so much
to be Jewish and come closer to Hashem in His Holy City, became a victim of
Arab terror just for that – being a Jew in Jerusalem.

Yemima
has been living in Israel
for the past two years, strengthening her connection to G-d, Judaism and Israel. Her
friends and teachers all say she was always very single minded, focused on one
goal - becoming a Jew, coming ever closer to Hashem, marrying a Torah-observant
husband and raising a Jewish family here. Completing the dream would be
bringing her mother and sister to Jerusalem.

As
of this writing, Yemima’s mother and sister are on the plane to Israel, but not
in the way the 21 year old had hoped.

Searching for G-d

Rabbi
Gavriel Guiber of Un Mundo Mejor
(who teaches Torah in Spanish) has helped Yemima for the past five years, since
she first wrote to him on the internet, asking him for guidance in leading a
more observant life. Her questions had such depth, the rabbi thought she was
Jewish. Yemima told him that while she was not Jewish, her mother lit Shabbat
candles, and the family had a tradition that the grandmother and
great-grandmother had done so, as well. Her family name is one of anusim
(forced converts who tried to observe vestiges of Jewish practice), but the
family had no documentation that they were Jewish.

Rabbanit
Chaya Engel, one of Yemima’s teachers in Machon Roni, a Spanish-language
seminary for women, said that the Zohar states that when G-d asked the nations
of the world if they would keep the Torah, as a whole they rejected it. However
there were small voices within the nations that answered, “Yes!” “No one heard
them, except HaKadosh Baruch Hu,” Rabbanit Engel said. “Before Meshiach
comes, Hashem is bringing back all those neshamot (souls) that wanted to
accept His Torah, because they deserve it.”

Yemima
is one of those souls.

Tradition in Ecuador

Back
in Guayaquil, Ecuador, Yemima lived as
traditional a life as possible with her mother and sister. Her parents are
divorced. While they all wished to become Jewish, since the family had little
money, Yemima’s mother gave her whatever they had in order to come to Israel.

Rabbi
Guiber helped her, and brought her to Machon Roni where other Spanish-speaking
women learned Torah. He said, “She is a model example of a gentile that wanted
to convert, and also an example to us.”

In
order to support herself, she worked in a senior residence in Bnei Brak, and
commuted to seminary daily. Rabbanit Sara Yalta Katz, director of the seminary,
located in the Old City of Jerusalem, said that Yemima traveled the farthest to
learn, but she never missed a day.

When
she moved to Jerusalem
to be closer to Machon Roni, Yemima worked cleaning houses. Her best friend
said, “She would have done anything to learn Torah.”

Rabbanit
Engel teaches many Spanish-speaking girls who are preparing for their
conversion. “These girls come to Israel, having a relatively high
level of education or standing in their home countries. They were teachers,
clerks, and today they clean floors. But they are willing to be nothing here,
like the Biblical Ruth, in order to be Jewish. We were born Jewish, but they
chose to be Jewish.“

Rabbanit
Katz said that Yemima decided at a young age that she wanted to become Jewish,
but she was always hoping for a sign proving that “Hashem controls the world”.
Yemima told her that once while praying the Amida (the Silent Prayer),
an earthquake hit. Her family went scrambling under the table, and everything
was falling around her. Yemima said that perhaps she was concentrating so
intensely on her prayers that she did not feel the earthquake at all. She told
herself, “This is it.”

Critical Condition

While
Yemima has completed her conversion process, she is still working through the
bureaucracy of citizenship. IY”H, may she recover and fulfill the entire
dream – living as a Jewish woman in Israel and one day raising a Jewish
family that will be a tribute to our people.